Is Tony Orlando's Christmas show at Sands Bethlehem Event Center coming back next year?

Singer Tony Orlando's "Great American Christmas," which Saturday concluded eight performances over five days at Sands Bethlehem Event Center, not only will return next year, but will expand, officials announced.

In addition, the event center will partner with ArtsQuest to cross-promote Orlando's shows and ArtsQuest's holiday activities such as the Christkindlmarkt holiday market next year, officials with both organizations said.

And a bus program that brought people to Orlando's shows from as far as Conneticut, West Virginia and Virginia will be greatly expanded, officials said.

The run is even prompting the event center to look at residencies by other, perhaps even bigger, acts.

Orlando and Event Center officials said “Tony Orlando’s Great American Christmas" will play 12 performances next year.

The announcement was made from the event center stage during the final matinee performance of Orlando's show. The show’s last performance this year will be at 7 p.m. today.

"We're proud to have him here," Trainer said. "The show's been fantastic. ... been very successful. I'm proud to announce we're going to extend it now next year."

Orlando respondes, "Oh, I love it!"

"We believe this thing is going to expand more," Trainer said. "We said it was going to be like building a foundation here, where the house was going to come."

Salkowski said dates and times for the new shows will be determined later, but it again will be a Christmastime show.

Orlando had said it was during a trip to the area for a 2000 performance at Easton’s State Theatre that he dreamed of presenting the show in Bethlehem – a dream that became possible when Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem added the event center in 2012.

Orlando’s show had performed for 20 years at similar-sized theaters in Branson, Mo. Before that, it was as the first holiday show in Las Vegas, and for the past five years had successful runs in New York City, Atlantic City and Lake Tahoe, Nev., and elsewhere.

Salkowski and Trainer said the show's eight performances drew an average of 1,200 to 1,400 people. The first show, a matinee performance Monday, that drew perhaps 2,000 people to the 2,550-capacity center.

Trainer said it was a "big commitment" by the event center to book that many shows, but it paid off. He said it had ripple effects of filling restaurants and buffets, and increasing traffic at other Bethlehem businesses.

"I just think we got something good here," Trainer said.

ArtsQuest Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Partnerships Curt Mosel said that's the idea of the oranization partnering with the event center for Orlando's return.

"We'll do a lot of cross-pollination with our Christmas programs," Mosel said. He said there's even discussion of Orlando doing some types of events at ArtsQuest's adjacent SteelStacks campus.

"We've been invited to be part of this partnership next year and we're honored to be."

Trainer said the event center will increase bus programs, which brought loads of patrons from other states to see Orlando. He said Orlando will attend an American Bus Association convention soon to promote next year's show.

Until Orlando, the event center had not run bus programs to performances to such a large extent.

The attendance has persuaded the event center to look at other artist residencies, such as Las Vegas casinos have done with such acts as Guns N Roses.

"We'd like to make this the home for some big acts," Trainer said. "We're going in the right direction. Who knows where it will go?"

On stage, Mayor Donchez -- who on Friday declared it Tony Orlando Day in Bethlehem -- said the entertainer would be welcome "for many, many years."

Orlando said from the outset he hoped the show would become an annual run at the event center.

"Hopefully, the people will love it, and maybe we'll come every year," he said in an interview before the show premiered. "I would love to have my Christmas show live and breathe in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania."

On stage Saturday, he again told the crowd he had "dreamed about coming to Bethlehem."

The 85-minute show starts as a concert of Orlando’s early 1970s hits “Knock Three Times,” “Canddida,” “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” and "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose" but becomes a pageant of Christmas songs and discussion of the holiday’s meaning with an audience member who may or may not be Santa Claus.

Orlando had his biggest success in the 1970s with two female singers as Tony Orlando and Dawn. The group first topped the charts in 1970 with the song "Candida."

"Tie a Yellow Ribbon," released in 1973, became one of the 75 biggest hits of all time, and had a second run of popularity when it was used to remember the Iranian hostages in 1980, then again in the early 1990s as a theme for the return of soldiers from the Gulf War.

Tony Orlando and Dawn from 1974-76 it even had its own variety show on CBS-TV. The group parted ways in 1977.